The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828Oxford University Press, 3 груд. 1998 р. - 240 стор. DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) dominated the politics of New York State during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, serving as mayor of New York City and then governor of the state. At the same time, he was influential on the national scene, running for president in 1812 and only narrowly losing to James Madison. Although patrician in his sentiments, Clinton nevertheless developed new forms of party politics, including the spoils system. He was an early champion of the nomination of candidates by convention rather than legislative caucus, and as a United States Senator contributed the draft language for the Twelfth Amendment, which embedded party politics in the fabric of the Constitution. Clinton's greatest achievement was the Erie Canal, the establishment and implementation of which he championed as early as 1810. Construction of the canal began in 1817, and even before it was completed, eight years later, it had brought profound changes--economic, cultural, and social--to the state and the nation. As Evan Cornog illustrates in his detailed and compelling narrative, the Erie Canal hastened the economic expansion of the country, altered its political geography, set an example for activist government, and decisively secured New York City's position as America's foremost metropolis. It was a project unlike anything the Empire State--or the United States--had seen before, and was only the most successful of Clinton's many efforts to implement his view that government should play an active role in the economic and intellectual development of American society. The Birth of Empire chronicles not only the life of an important political leader but the accomplishments that underlay his success. As mayor of New York City, for example, Clinton was instrumental in the founding of the public-school system. He sponsored countless measures to promote cultural enrichment as well as educational opportunities for New Yorkers, and helped to establish and lead such institutions as the New-York Historical Society, the American Academy of the Arts, and the Literary and Philosophical Society. An amateur scientist of some renown, Clinton also wrote essays on geology, botany, entomology, archaeology, anthropology, and ichthyology. As shown here, Clinton's career was marked by frequent attempts to integrate his cultural and scientific interests into his identity as a politician, thus projecting the image of a man of wide learning and broad vision, a scholar-statesman of the new republic. Ironically, the political innovations which Clinton set in motion--the refinement of patronage and the spoils system, appeals to immigrant voters, and the professionalization of politics--were precisely what led to the extinction of the scholar-statesman's natural habitat. However visionary, the latter-day philosopher-king would eventually have no place in the modern world. DeWitt Clinton was born into the aristocratic culture of the eighteenth century, yet his achievements and ideas crucially influenced (in ways he did not always anticipate) the growth of the mass society of the nineteenth century. With this book, Cornog engagingly guides readers through the colorful maze of early nineteenth-century New York politics and society, illustrating both the depth of achievement and breadth of influence of one of its most important leaders. Those who wish to understand the development of American politics, the flowering of a distinctly American cultural life, the progress of the market revolution, and the growth of America's largest city will find many valuable insights in The Birth of Empire. |
Зміст
3 | |
12 | |
Political Journeyman | 22 |
Clintonians and Burrites | 39 |
Mayor Clinton | 54 |
Clintonian Culture | 62 |
Photo gallery | 72 |
Clintonians and Quids | 73 |
Clintonian Intellect | 118 |
The Governor | 127 |
Resurrection | 145 |
The Canal and Its Consequences | 158 |
End of a Career | 173 |
Notes | 187 |
Bibliography | 211 |
Index | 221 |
Інші видання - Показати все
The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828 Evan Cornog Обмежений попередній перегляд - 2000 |
The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828 Evan Cornog Обмежений попередній перегляд - 2000 |
The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828 Evan Cornog Попередній перегляд недоступний - 1998 |
Загальні терміни та фрази
Aaron Burr Adams Albany Alexander allies Ambrose Spencer American Political Economy April Bank Bobbé British Bucktails Burr's Burrites candidate career caucus Charles Cheetham city's Clin Clinton to DWC Clintonians Columbia Constitution Council of Appointment Crawford cultural Daniel D Decline of Aristocracy DeWitt Clinton Diary DWC Papers early election electoral Embargo Erie Canal Erie Water West favor federal Federalist support friends George Clinton governor Gulian Hamilton History of Political Jabez Hammond James James Clinton Jeffersonian John Pintard Lake later legislature letters Livingston Lomask Madison Martin Van Buren mayor Memoir New-York Historical Society nomination NYHS organizations People's party Political History Political Parties Politician port presidential Princeton to Vice Regency Rensselaer Renwick Republican Revolution role Rufus King Siry state's Swartwout Tammany tion Tompkins Tompkins's ton's University Press Verplanck vice president Virginia vote Washington western New York William Witt wrote York City York's
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Сторінка 122 - A multitude, like which the populous North Pour'd never from her frozen loins, to pass Rhene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons Came like a deluge on the south, and spread Beneath Gibraltar to the Lybian sands.
Сторінка 65 - No author, without a trial, can conceive of the difficulty of writing a romance about a country where there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a commonplace prosperity, in broad and simple daylight, as is happily the case with my dear native land.
Сторінка 122 - Genessee country, and the lands of the Holland Land Company, over the territory adjoining the Ohio and its tributary streams, the country on Lake Erie, and extending even west of the Mississippi, demonstrate a population far exceeding that of the Indians when this country was first settled. " I have seen several of these works in the western parts of this state. There is a large one in the town of Onondaga; one in Pompey, and another in Manlius; one in Camillus, eight miles from Auburn; one in Scipio,...
Сторінка 165 - For three hundred and sixty miles, gentlemen, through the entire breadth of the state of New York ; through numerous populous cities and most thriving villages ; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and affluent, cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility ; by billiard-room and barroom ; through the...
Сторінка 45 - If I were called upon to prescribe a course of policy most important for this country to pursue, it would be to avoid European connections and wars. The time must arrive when we will have to contend with some of the great powers of Europe ; but let that period be put off as long as possible. It is our interest and our duty to cultivate peace, with sincerity and good faith. As a young nation, pursuing industry in every channel, and adventuring commerce in every sea, it is highly important that we...
Сторінка 165 - Indian rivers; through sun and shade; by happy hearts or broken ; through all the wide contrasting scenery of those noble Mohawk counties; and especially by rows of snow-white chapels, whose spires stand almost like milestones, flows one continual stream of Venetianly corrupt and often lawless life. There's your true Ashantee, gentlemen; there howl your pagans; where you ever find them, next door to you; under the long-flung shadow, and the snug patronizing lee of churches. For by some curious fatality,...
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